Michelle Obama, Ed Miliband And Mario Monti: Who Had A Rough Week?

The second week of 2012 has been an eventful one. We have seen Miliband's big speech on the economy greeted with a shrug of dismissal, Michelle Obama accused of being "some angry black woman", rumours of a military coup in Pakistan, a rising Mormon presidential hopeful in the United States and German praises for an Italian technocrat.

Here is our round up of the movers and shakers this week.

Close



of





Michelle Obama took her critics on after being accused of being an "angry black woman" in an unauthorised biography on the Obamas published on Wednesday.

Ed's speech on the economy on Tuesday was chewed up by the press - even the BBC got his name wrong.
Bagheot - in the Economist - has claimed that Ed is running out of time to make his political breakthrough.

This was a good week for 'Super' Mario Monti - Angela Merkel praised him for applying austerity measures so quickly.

Ian Duncan Smith's welfare reforms were thrown out of the House of Lords on Thursday.

This was a bad week for Ken Livingstone - who was heavily criticised for his comments about Andrew Gilligan indirectly causing the death of Dr David Kelly.

Jesse Norman MP - considered a rising star of the Conservative Party - saw his motion to outlaw taxpayer funded representatives defeated in the Commons.

This was a good week for Mitt Romney - the Republican Party hopeful for the White House. He won the New Hampshire primary on Wednesday - becoming the front-runner in the race to win the Republican presidential nomination.

This was a bad week for Pakistan President Asif Zadari. He left the country on Thursday for a one-day private visit to Dubai. When Zardari left, military chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani met with top commanders - fueling speculation in the media about a potential army coup against him.